With his big game against Arizona, Michael Crabtree became the first 49ers receiver since 2003 with a 1,000-yard season.

Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez, The Chronicle

With his big game against Arizona, Michael Crabtree became the...

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Crabtree saved his best for last, with 172 receiving yards and two touchdowns in the regular-season finale against the Cardinals on Dec. 30.

Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez, Associated Press

Crabtree saved his best for last, with 172 receiving yards and two...

Image 3 of 3

ST. LOUIS, MO - JANUARY 1: Michael Crabtree #15 of the San Francisco 49ers gets past Josh Gordy #38 of the St. Louis Rams on his way to a touchdown at the Edward Jones Dome on January 1, 2012 in St. Louis, Missouri. The 49ers beat the Rams 34-27. (Photo by Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images)

After his first get-to-know-you meeting with Michael Crabtree five years ago, Lincoln Riley was surprised when the shy redshirt freshman wide receiver playfully jabbed him about his youth and inexperience.

On their way out the door, Crabtree, who had barely said a word, smiled at his new 24-year-old position coach.

Noting that Crabtree was a former high school quarterback who had yet to catch a pass at Texas Tech, Riley gave it right back, nearly verbatim: "He had all this hype about what kind of wide receiver he was going to be so I said, 'Hey, you're kind of young. You haven't played much receiver have you?' We were just having fun, but, at the time, we both had a lot to prove. I guess we did OK."

Indeed, a half-decade later, Riley, a fast-rising offensive coordinator at East Carolina, has enjoyed watching his former pupil finally star on Sundays. After three mostly pedestrian seasons, Crabtree enters the playoffs on the heels of one of the best years by a 49ers wide receiver in nearly a decade.

His 85-catch, 1,105-yard season made him the franchise's first 1,000-yard receiver since Terrell Owens in 2003. He also became the fourth wideout in franchise history with 85 catches, joining Owens, Dwight Clark and Jerry Rice.

"It's almost like I'm back coaching him again when I've watched those games this season," Riley said. "I'm getting pretty into it. It's great to see him doing well. I always knew it was a matter of time because I know how much the game means to him. I know how much he puts into it."

Speak with Riley and others who coached Crabtree in college and a theme emerges: They believed a season such as 2012 would eventually arrive because of their former pupil's unwavering dedication to the game.

Their spirited testimonies poke a gaping hole in the perception of Crabtree as a half-interested, diva wide receiver, a tag that has lost traction during the latter stages of his four-year NFL career.

This season, for example, San Francisco offensive coordinator Greg Roman noted Crabtree often arrives at practice early and runs through cones to develop his footwork. It's not quite a new development. In perhaps his favorite Crabtree story, former Texas Tech head coach Mike Leach relayed how he saw a shadowy figure on the practice field while poring over late-night film.

It turns out one of the best players in college football had jumped the fence.

"I said 'What are you doing, Michael?' " recalls Leach, now the head coach at Washington State. "He said 'Well, I set up these cones here and I was thinking if I come out of my cut like this and stick my toe here, I'm going to be open by another step.' ... He was constantly working on stuff like that. It wasn't just once that I wandered out and there's Michael Crabtree."

Not long after his arrival in San Francisco last year, Jim Harbaugh began hailing Crabtree's ferocious downfield blocking. That, too, was on display at Texas Tech. In 2007, Crabtree asked assistant coach Dennis Simmons how he could improve after a freshman season in which he had 134 catches and won the Biletnikoff Award given to the nation's best wide receiver.

Simmons' advice: Become a better blocker.

"His sophomore year, his blocking highlight tape is, for a receiver, still the best I've ever seen," Riley said. "Phenomenal. The way he blocked and how fierce he played the game. He works that way, too. There's a reason why he's doing what he's doing right now ... this guy, first and foremost, is a grinder. Is a worker. Is an old-school, physical-type football player."

Of course, the public viewed Crabtree as a spoiled modern-day athlete - not a tough-guy throwback - when he missed the first five games of his rookie season because of a contract holdout. And his inability to play in any of the first 12 preseason games of his career - due to the holdout and injuries - only fueled diva chatter.

"I got offended by it because I know him," said Simmons, now the wide receivers coach at Washington State. "When he first meets you, he's not going to say much. I can see where people might say he's standoffish. But to say he's a diva and a prima donna? To me that was kind of laughable. That's the total opposite of what he is."

As Simmons notes, this season might be the first since Crabtree's freshman season at Texas Tech in which he isn't at least slightly hampered by his balky left foot, which required surgery in 2009 and '11. Simmons says Crabtree likely played with a stress fracture for the latter part of his sophomore season in 2008.

Now healthy, Crabtree resembled a different receiver this season.

In some ways, though, he hasn't changed a bit, insists the coach who witnessed his behind-the-scenes commitment.

"He's just never slowed down," Leach said. "The quest to be great is ingrained in him. He pretty much understands that those skills are going to be developed alone instead of on television sets and in crowded stadiums. Those skills are going to be developed when no one's around."